Jill Barshay at The Hechinger Report shares a research study that compared feedback from ChatGPT and humans:

On a five-point scale that the researchers used to rate feedback quality, with a 5 being the highest quality feedback, ChatGPT averaged a 3.6 compared with a 4.0 average from a team of 16 expert human evaluators. It was a tough challenge. Most of these humans had taught writing for more than 15 years or they had considerable experience in writing instruction. All received three hours of training for this exercise plus extra pay for providing the feedback.

ChatGPT even beat these experts in one aspect; it was slightly better at giving feedback on students’ reasoning, argumentation and use of evidence from source materials – the features that the researchers had wanted the writing evaluators to focus on.

Barshay goes on to discuss the studies implications:

One of the biggest problems in writing instruction in U.S. schools is that teachers assign too little writing, Graham said, often because teachers feel that they don’t have the time to give personalized feedback to each student. That leaves students without sufficient practice to become good writers. In theory, teachers might be willing to assign more writing or insist on revisions for each paper if students (or teachers) could use ChatGPT to provide feedback between drafts.

There’s also the risk that students may not be interested in heeding AI feedback. Students often ignore the painstaking feedback that their teachers already give on their essays. Why should we think students will pay attention to feedback if they start getting more of it from a machine?

AI tools can help provide students with timely feedback, but the challenge for educators is encouraging students to engage and act on the feedback to improve their writing. Educators can use strategies like iterative grading where the writing isn’t graded until students submit a revision or self-assessment to empower students to evaluate their own writing.

Generative AI continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Sal Kahn’s demo of ChatGPT-4o (Omni) ability to guide his son through the math concepts is very impressive. The integration of this technology into other educational plaforms can help educators support the diverse needs of their students.

Diana Benner at TCEA Tech Notes shares a fun way to create writing prompts:

Dave Birss created a digital story dice generator. The dice feature different images, with over 50 options for each dice. You have the option of choosing five dice or nine dice. This is a handy tool if you are looking for inspiration to create fun story ideas.

A fun and easy way to spark creativity, the digital story dice generator is also a great example of a simple web app that students can develop in a computer science class.

Elizabeth Heubeck, writing for EdWeek discusses how audiobooks can be integrated into high school curriculum as a potentional solution to the decline in reading among students:

There’s also compelling research that compares brain activity during reading with brain activity during listening. In one such study, researchers scanned the brains of participants as they read or listened to stories from The Moth Radio Hour, a podcast. The researchers then analyzed how the brain’s cortex processed individual words, both read and heard. Mapping their findings, they concluded that the stories—whether listened to or read—stimulated the same cognitive and emotional areas of the brain. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Despite advocating audiobook usage, [Molly] Ness [a former teacher, reading researcher, and vice president of academic content at Learning Ally, a nonprofit volunteer organization that supports educators] cautions educators to be mindful of how it’s used.

“If we are trying to help kids improve their reading ability, then matching the speech to print is useful. But if we are a 10th grade history teacher just trying to cover content and give students background knowledge and exposure, then the audiobook a kid has in his earbuds on the walk home from school is just as rich,” she said.

I’m a big fan of audio content like audiobooks and podcasts because they are a great way to be productive while I am commuting or cooking dinner. For students, I agree that teachers need to consider the purpose of the reading when using podcasts or audiobooks. If the goal is to boost reading skills, then reading along with the audio is beneficial. However, for simply building background knowledge, listening alone is perfectly fine.

Erik Ofgang at Tech and Learning discusses how Sal Khan uses generative AI chatbots to explore questions about a topic. Kahn provide an example on how he used Khanmigo to understand why the death of a star would lead to an outward explosion:

“I would think it would collapse if you have all the fusion stopping,” Khan explained to the AI when prompted.

The AI told him he wasn’t wrong but asked several questions encouraging him to think more about that collapse and what collapsing entails. “Have you ever seen anything that falls quickly without bouncing?” The AI asked. Khan responded, “Oh, so are you telling me that it collapses so quickly that it essentially compresses the core and that it rebounds?”

The AI said, “Yes, that’s exactly what’s going on.”

Generative AI chatbots can provide a way for students to have a dialogue to explore their questions and misconceptions about a topic at their own pace. However, it is important for students to use education focused chatbots that allow teachers to monitor the students conversations. Also, students must learn to verify the information they receive from a chatbot against trusted sources.

MisinfoDay was established to educate high school students, educators, and librarians with media literacy skills to critically evaluate online content. Created by the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, the purpose of the annual March event is to help participants make well-informed judgments about the credibility of information found on the web.

The MisinfoDay page contains resources to help educators incorporate these ideas in their classroom. One of the lesson focuses on The Types of Misinformation:

This lesson, developed by CIP scholars and staff, helps students recognize false information when they see it by providing an introduction to mis- and disinformation, the difference between the two, and the seven types they may see on their social media feed.

Providing students and educators with media literacy skills will improve their capacity to assess the credibility of information available on the internet.

Courtney Holden at 5280 talks about the InsideU web app which helps students understand and manage their emotions:

The InsideU Social Emotional Learning App, a collaboration between the Crown Wellness Institute and Pixar Animation Studios, uses scenes from Inside Out to help kids better understand their feelings and recognize they have a choice in how they react to them. “The more we start to layer on these experiences that your emotions—even your big ones—are understandable and acceptable,” Hubley says, “the more we are laying down a foundation for mental health and wellness.”

InsideU is a free web app designed for elementary and middle school students that offers a range of interactive and engaging activities to students navigate their emotions effectively.

Lydia Croupe at TCEA Tech Notes curated resources from the TCEA 2024 Conference. The presenters from Duncanville ISD showcased how to generate content with generative AI tools and use Canva’s Bulk Create to effeciently create designs:

If you’re not familiar, Canva Bulk Create is a powerful tool that allows users to upload a CSV file containing data like text or images to automatically generate multiple design variations at once.

Teachers can use generative AI tools to create different types of content in a CSV format, including instructional content for classroom posters, tier 2 vocabulary from an article, or a list of questions about a topic. Then, teachers can import this content into Canva’s Bulk Create to design variations using the content.

The combination of generative AI tools and Canva’s Bulk Create can significantly boost productivity, enabling teachers to create consistent yet customized content quickly.

Greg Toppo at The 74 Million talks about how students are using artificial intelligence to create projects that showcase their talents and passions. Two of these students are Vinaya Sharma and Krishiv Thakuria. They are working on different AI projects that aim to make a positive impact on society.

One of the apps that Vinaya Sharma developed is an AI-powered chatbot to handle 911 calls:

The 911 app is still in search of customers, she said, but would be valuable especially in cases where multiple people are calling about the same emergency, such as a car crash. The AI would geolocate the calls and determine if callers were using similar words to describe what they saw. To those who balk at talking to a 911 chatbot, Sharma said the current system in Toronto is often backed up. “It’ll be 100% better than being put on hold and no one assisting you at all.”

Krishiv Thakuria founded Aceflow.org which is developing AI-powered learning tools:

The tools let users upload any class materials — study notes, a PDF of a textbook chapter or entire novel or even a teacher’s PowerPoint. From there they can create “an infinite set of practice questions” keyed to the course, Thakuria said. If students get stuck, they can click on an AI tutor customized to the material they uploaded.

One of the great benefits of AI is that it can help people create things faster and easier, even if they don’t know how to code in a specific language. AI can provide people with various tools and resources to turn their ideas into reality, without requiring them to learn complex syntax or logic.

Sarah Perez at Techcrunch talks about Common Sense Media’s evaluation of the opportunities, considerations, and limitations of popular AI tools:

In the mid-tier of Common Sense’s ratings, were AI chatbots like Google’s Bard (which just yesterday officially opened to teens), ChatGPT, and Toddle AI. The organization warned that bias may occur in these bots as well, particularly for users with “diverse backgrounds and dialects.” They could also produce inaccurate information — or AI hallucinations — and reinforce stereotypes. Common Sense warned that the false information AI produces could shape users’ worldviews and make it even more difficult to separate fact from fiction.

The only AI products to receive good reviews were Ello’s AI reading tutor and book delivery service, Khanmingo (from Khan Academy), and Kyron Learning’s AI tutor — all three being AI products designed for educational purposes. They’re less well-known than others. (And, as some kids may argue, less fun). Still, because the companies designed them with kids’ usage in mind, they tended to use responsible AI practices and focused on fairness, diverse representation, and kid-friendly design considerations. They also were more transparent about their data privacy policies.

If you’re thinking of using AI tools in your classroom, you might want to think twice. Some of these tools, like Google’s Bard and ChatGPT are not very reliable or fair. They may exhibit bias and produce inaccurate or misleading information, which could harm students’ critical thinking skills and cultural awareness. They may also generate false or inappropriate content, which could influence students’ beliefs and values in negative ways. These chatbots may not be transparent or accountable for their data collection and usage, which could compromise students’ privacy and security.